Developing Mobile Apps for Pro Sports Teams

The Fantasy Football craze is just one of the many indications that there is a very real demand for fan apps. But we remember the days of Rotisserie Baseball, where you were updating your sheets on a daily basis. All the sports teams have finally realized they need a website  thankfully, most of them realized it 8 – 12 years ago  but now, we’re waiting for them to realize they need a mobile app as well. As the adoption of mobile smart phones continues to grow, and several third-party companies are creating different team apps on their own, we think the time is right for sports teams to explore the mobile market. For sports teams, creating a solid user experience for the fan would be the key to creating a winning, sticky app. Here are a few things we would like to see in a professional sports app.

Virtual interaction with team members.

Virtual play call ability. A “did you make the right call” section, or even a contest.

Likelihood analytics for cause-and-effect, like the analytics we saw in the film, Moneyball, such as if the lineup was adjusted this way, then that could result in X outcome.

Post-game post-mortem, identifying if various changes were in play, how those factors would have altered the outcome of the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup or the NBA Finals.

You could even offer features that allow people at the game to interact with the ballpark, stadium, or arena  posting messages and photos to the jumbotron, voting on special contests, and even ordering and paying for concessions.

For individual sports athletes, such as tennis players, we would develop apps that would identify how things like foot placement or shot placement on the court would predict whether or not a player’s first serve is more likely to be in or out of bounds.

TV shows like the now-defunct series, Numb3rs, really helped the general public understand how probability works, and the advantages of having that information at your fingertips. Combine that with Americans love for sports and for mobile apps, and you’ve got a way for fans to do more than just watch a game.